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tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  September 14, 2012 4:00am-5:00am EDT

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that was supposed to air this evening will be seen this sunday. is he stitting down with three billionaire americans, mark cub an, steve wynn and t. boone pickens and they are talking about keeping america great. that's sunday night. "a.c. 360" starts right now. "ac 360" starts right now. wolf be with thanks, 10:00 here on the east coast. we begin tonight with special coverage of the anti-american wildfire that's now burning across the arab world and beyond. you're looking at cnn cairo after another day of rage targeting the american embassy. some terrorists outraged by the anti muslim video some may be foot soldiers in the struggle for power in egypt and elsewhere. others may be angry people who until now volcano had a target for their rage. whatever the true motivations it's not just cairo anymore. not just benghazi, libya where four americans, including the
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u.s. ambassador to libya were killed in the turmoil. ambassador christopher stevens, state department computer expert sean smith, former navy s.e.a.l. glen doherty, and breaking news about the fourth victim. he has now been identified, tyron woods, a former navy s.e.a.l. as well. according to knsd, woods was from the area, from imperial beach, 41 years old. his ex-wife telling the station he loved being a s.e.a.l. more than life itself. we do have late developments on an arrest today in connection with his killing, as well as the search for additional suspects. and the libyans, many of whom have expressed shock and outrage over the killings. as we said, the anti-american flames are spreading. in addition to libya and egypt, there were protests as well today in yemen, sudan, iraq, morocco, gaza. at least 11 hotspots now including israel, iran, and the cash kashmir region by india. not just contained in the arab world anymore. the most dramatic and deadly eruption happened in the capital of yemen.
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take a look. protesters breaching a wall at the u.s. embassy with several thousand more chanting in the street. witnesses say police opened fire on the crowd, four protesters reported dead. officials say two dozen security officers were hurt as well. in cairo, meantime, at least 19 people were hurt in massive demonstrations there. demonstrations as we just showed have continued into the night. the crowd throwing rocks, molotov cocktails, police there you see responding with teargas. some protesters said they hadn't actually seen the video in question but they were outraged by reports about it the idea of it. muslim brotherhood, which controls the newly elected government, put out a statement targeting the filmmaker. it says in part, quote, we denounce abuse of all messengers of god, prophets and apostles and condemn the heinous crime. we further call for the criminalization of assaults on the sanctities of all heavenly religions.
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otherwise such acts will continue to cause devout the west to allow their citizens to violate what muslims hold dear and holy. and they call for criminal charges against the filmmaker. softening the tone somewhat, we condemn both movie and violent protesting in all our statements arabic and english. people have the right to peacefully protest. the words and pictures have not been reassuring, and speaking on telemundo, president obama had this to say. >> i don't think we would consider them an ally, but we don't consider them an enemy. they are a new government that is trying to find its way. they were democratically elected, i think that we are going to have to see how they respond to this incident. >> well, in fact, by law, since the 1980s, egypt is designated
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one of 15 major non-nato allies. victoria newland confirmed nothing has changed from a policy standpoint. on the political front, however, a white house spokesman tried to contain any damage, saying mr. obama was speaking colloquially. a lot to talk about right now on many different fronts. cnn's ben wedeman is on ground for us. homeland security adviser fran townsend with us. our national security contributor and member of the external advisory committee. she visited egypt with her employer. and we have a fellow at stanford at hoover institution. ben, is that firing in the background now? >> actually, anderson, that is protesters firing fireworks in the direction of security forces which are literally right below this balcony and this is happening sort of on an hourly basis throughout the day and well into the night.
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>> so what is the atmosphere like? i mean, what -- and is this still about that video? >> it is. i mean, we spent some time speaking to the protesters and that obviously -- that video is what they acclaim or explain is the reason for their presence outside of the embassy. but as i've seen in previous clashes here in cairo, a dynamic sets in, where it's really a fight between basically young men who are sort of high on adrenaline against the security forces, and sort of the politics seems to disappear. but obviously, symbolically, the fact that these clashes have been going on around the clock for well over 24 hours, is a worrying thing for an embassy, which for years under the mubarak regime existed quite peacefully. and certainly we saw, you
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mentioned that statement from the muslim brotherhood, the number two in the muslim brotherhood did publish today a statement in "the new york times" condemning the attack on the u.s. embassy here, condemning the killing of u.s. diplomats in libya, but they there is sort of a dichotomy of messages. in english, they seem to be fairly soft and conciliatory as far as the united states goes. in arabic, a much harsher tone and in some respects, not all together condemning the current protests outside the u.s. embassy here. >> we'll continue the conversation. we'll come back to you. if you need for any security reason to step inside away -- you are outside right now, we will certainly understand that. fran, we've identified or know the identity of the fourth victim, tyrone woods, a former navy s.e.a.l. i know you don't know him personally, we've all spent time in hotspots overseas. we know men like him that play critical roles in these dangerous countries without any recognition.
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>> that's right, anderson. when you look at glen dougherty and tyrone woods, function they perform really allows the united states to be in dangerous places where we need to be in order to protect long term the american people and american interests. our diplomats wouldn't be in those parts of the world without woods and dougherty. woods' sister made a statement, and said she regards hill as an american hero. i think if more people understood the mission and what they're doing in these dangerous places as well as, anderson, how both woods and doherty behaved in response to the attack on the consulate, i think every american would regard them as a hero. >> when you hear the statement that the muslim brotherhood made, what do you make of it? >> it's a tragedy foretold, in many ways. we've been there before. we've seen these events, we have seen it when salman rushdie wrote "the satanic verses," seen
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them in holland with the khartoum crisis and several of these things. it involves the clash of values with people in the west who do things and insist on freedom of expression and people in the islamic world who live on raw nerves and are willing and eager to be offended. this really is what it is. >> willing and eager? >> yes. that's what it is. ben wedeman said it well. they are there and gather in front of the u.s. embassy. and i think the u.s. embassy are like fortresses. symbols of this great distant power. and people see the embassy, they are the thing and it's opposite. they are place to go to to get a visa to get the hell out of this country. and it's place where great conspiracies are being hatched. and the truth of islam. allow me one thing. i watched that trailer, this trailer. it's unbelievable. it's from right out of the gutter. and as a muslim, i was born a
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muslim, i'm not observant. the vulgarity of the whole thing. it wasn't a work of art. it was intended as a work of incitement. it is sad that this cheap work of incitement would become the cause of this violent upheaval and this violent protest. people should be willing to be offended. but i think that large numbers of people in the islamic world are still not willing to look the other way and be offended. >> is that a function of the -- the state with which society is, the evolution of society there? the repression that they've -- how do you explain it? a lot of people look and say, look, you don't see other places in the world. there is the book of mormon and you don't see mormons being upset. they accept criticism or satire or offensive things about their religion. >> the muslims have this high barrier on insults to the prophet. the muslim people have come into the modern world bearing these ideas, if you will, that they
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should not be offended, that they should be given a pass in the world. but i can't really emphasize the absolute disgust i had, watching this video. no excuse for it, and when you hear this said producer who we don't know who the hell he is, when he said i made this film and i was financed by 100 jewish investors, it was almost two birds with one stone. insulting islam and implicating the jews. we don't know if he's even jewish. >> we know he's not, the maker of this film. we know more about him. we'll report more on that. president obama, you heard in that clip, he doesn't consider egypt an ally. the state department has to walk that back. the white house has to clarify it. what is going on? are they trying to send a message? what's going on? >> i actually think it's unfortunate that there has been sort of this walking back of the president's statement. look, imagine how the president and the white house must feel right now. you had the egyptians on notice before the first protest in
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cairo, and the egyptians failed to put force there and barbed wire and protect the embassy in advance of the first protest, and then after it occurred, there were very slow to issue a condemnation and it was very sort of a weak condemnation. and so the president is angry. i suspect they are angry and disappointed. they're not sure that morsi, who belongs to the muslim brotherhood will be a real and strong ally and help them push this back and president just sort of owned he's angry with them and disappointed at the egyptians and their reaction, i think he would have had all americans saying, me too. but we have this sort of half language now, they are an ally, but we don't know them, they're not an enemy and all of today, this walking back of it. i think it's foolish. i think they should have owned the fact that we're disappointed with the egyptians, we invest a lot of money in military aid to them and we have a right to
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expect better from them. >> ben, tomorrow is a day of prayer obviously in the muslim world. the muslim brotherhood called for protest against egypt against this film. have you been talking to the muslim brotherhood officials, how do they plan to ensure these don't spiral out of control? it seems like potential for more provocation. >> anderson, what they say is they're going to have protests across egypt at mosques in cities from the north to the south. but they are not going to hold any protests in the area of the american embassy or tahrir square, which is right next to it. the problem, of course, can they control 2 it, if the large numbers come out. we've seen protests in cairo before, which start out of tahrir square, but by sort of a natural motion of the sort of the street here, they end up in the square. and the muslim brotherhood obviously is not the only islamist group in this country, you have the salafis, who have
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played a much more active role in these protests and they may see this as an opportunity to gain more street credibility and in a sense undermine the muslim brotherhood. >> and, ben, i'm sorry. there is a -- a battle between the salafis and the muslim brothers. salafis are hard-core islamists. >> the muslim brotherhood plays that game. it's a militant organization. a fundamentalist organization, but it has come into power. look what was really interesting about egypt, egypt has had this deep wealth of anti-americanism. at the height of the relationship with hosni mubarak, in every survey, the egyptians, fierce anti-americans. that's the truth of the demented relationship between the united states and egypt. that hasn't gone away, and president obama fell for a kind of illusion that he could sweet talk the societies out of the rage, out of their anger. he went to cairo in june 2009,
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for famous speech and he believed -- he believed that he had capped the volcano in the islamic world. >> good to have you here. fran townsend, ben wedeman. we will come back to you in the program. please be very careful. we'll come back as developments warrant. let us know what you think. we're on facebook, twitte twitter, @andersoncooper. trying to find the killers that struck in benghazi. marines on the way. we'll update you on that and talk about what kind of force may be brought to bear when suspects are brought to bear. we'll talk with bob baer and retired brigadier general david grange.
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welcome back. as protests erupt, we have to remember the city where four americans were murdered is also the city we helped liberate. we have pictures of people who are grateful for the people who took to the streets thanking americans, and thanking ambassador stevens. for its part, the libyan government which took root as the libyan opposition, condemned the killings. one suspect is in custody. several more are being sought. arwa damon joins us by phone and so does bob baer, retired brigadier general david grange. what's the latest? what do you know? >> they have arrested one
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individual in association with these attacks. they're not specifying at this stage exactly which organization he has been a part of. they've been saying they're in pursuit of four or five other individuals. the government at this point in time is fully aware it has the responsibility to the united states to which it is greatly indebted and to its own people to take concrete action against those that have perpetrated this attack and also needs to really begin to seriously address the issue of these effectively armed militias, that roam around with complete and utter impunity, up until now and this is not an isolated incident. this is most certainly not the first time that western interests have been targeted specifically inside benghazi. the government does realize that it has to begin to put measures into place rein in these groups, and it has said in the past it's not capable of going up against these various armed extremists
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militias. it will take all of the efforts with the help of the united states, and the severity of what has transpired, the tragedy of what has transpired most certainly is not lost on anyone here at this point in time. and they are fully aware of the what the potential consequences could be, anderson. >> suzanne kelly says that it believes u.s. intelligence doesn't believe that it's core al qaeda behind this attack. but officials aren't ready to identify a group, as arwa talked about. you talked about how this is a hotbed for militant groups and this could be just the beginning? >> i think it is. there are large parts of the country that are definitely not under the control of the central government. i keep on hearing reports of weapons going into subsaharan africa. and there are these shadowy group groups -- really the names don't matter, whether it's al
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qaeda, al qaeda in the magreb or salafis. these groups are self-organized. weapons all over libya, and it will be an extremely difficult investigation to conduct, especially for america, because we can't simply put people out around town, in the country, because it's too dangerous. we have to defer to the libyans, it's a new government. they're not particularly well trained. we don't know who these people are, exactly. it's a chaotic situation, and i don't think we should expect answers anytime soon. >> general granger, a lot of the foreign jihadies who went into iraq came from libya, particularly eastern libya, benghazi region and east of that. the u.s. is deploying drones, warships to the region. how do you go about launching a military response if it comes to that, against militants inside libya? it seems complicated. >> it's very difficult. i've just been over there twice and moved around between
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tripoli, benghazi, tabruk, four different power groups, have you brigade commanders that have their own dichotomy in certain regions, shaikhs, tribal chiefs and the transnational council and ministries, and no one really controls everything. and i -- we met very good people there, moved around with them. but we had to change our route several times because of the salafis, they got word we were there, so we had to change. when our people go in there, targeting, how do you find them? you can't punish a population. and so it's very difficult to -- to find those that are responsible and take much action. we have to reinforce the consulate and embassy with marines, have a force off the coast to do emergency evacuation, if required, but the libyans basically asked us and we're -- we're the civilian private organization now, because we were setting up humanitarian assistant prospects. they asked us, america needs to be here. we want your business here.
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they all were wearing american flag pins on their clothes. they didn't want the chinese. they didn't want other nationalities. they wanted us, and we're very slow to get set up there. you won't stop some of the militant groups, but you sure can influence the population. i think we can do a better job of that. >> arwa, you're in benghazi. what is the atmosphere there now? people -- we saw pictures, rallies supporting the united states there. i mean, is it predominantly pro or anti u.s. sentiment there? can you tell? >> anderson, i landed a few hours ago, really in the middle of the night. the libyans i was talking to on the flight over, libyans i met when i was on the ground, are all really appalled at what happened. many of them are completely speechless and still in shock, and many of them want to emphasize this is not representative of libya, this is not representative of the libya that they were trying to establish, the libya that they
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fought, and they themselves died for or lost family members for. but this really goes to show how sinister this country can potentially become. the government has to, at this point in time, figure out a way to get the weapons off the street and back into its own control and that's one of the biggest challenges moving forward. post revolution the government has had to implement a series of policies to try to bring these various militias, the revolutionary fighting brigades into the security forces trying to persuade them to give up their weapons. up until now that has failed. the result is a lot of these groups, some of them extremist entities have been able to operate with impunity and have absolutely no motivation and don't have the confidence and the leadership here to have the incentive to want to lay their weapons down. many of them feeling that it is within their rights to carry these guns. you end up in some part of the countries having these systems
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that are being run by the armed gangs of which the government has absolutely no control whatsoever. >> very briefly, because we are short of time, i think a lot of people seeing this will find it hard to believe that local groups, libyans themselves in the benghazi region, don't know who the groups are and don't know who is active and who is behind this. isn't intelligence gathering at this point crucial? >> it is absolutely crucial. the libyans do know. the problem is, we haven't been there long enough to put the pieces together as we did with al qaeda after 9/11. it took us ten years to get to the leadership and target these drones. we are in the same position we were on 9/11 when we went into afghanistan, trying to figure out who was who. this is a very long conflict. and this one, i think, will be, too. >> bob baer, appreciate your expertise and dave grange too. anti-american rage explodes across the middle east, the
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so-called filmmaker who lit the match is in hiding tonight. we are learning more about who he is. that's next.
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new polls just out show president obama ahead in three crucial swing states.
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strong words from secretary of state hillary clinton. she says the u.s. government absolutely rejects film's content and message. short dwlips were posted on youtube, their production value so crude it's almost cartoonish. the filmmaker is said to be in hiding tonight. a lot of people trying to track him down for various reasons. we're toll the fbi has spoken to him. a lot of people are trying to track him down. when cnn tried to obtain a copy of the film permit, it was temporarily removed because of public safety concerns. one thing is now clear, sam bacile, a name that surfaced early in reporting, is a fake. miguel marquez investigates. >> reporter: he is a shadowy maker of a low-budget
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anti-islamic film. he doesn't want to be found and as we discovered, for good reason. in 1997, he spent a year in prison for intent to manufacture methamphetamine. in 2010, he spent another year in federal prison, this time for fraud. >> these are some of the documents for sam bacile or nakoula basseley nakoula. it is clear that going through these, investigators had a hard time tracking him down as well. the guy had several addresses, many social security numbers and lots of names. court documents show he used at least 17 different names, including sam bacile, kritbagh difrait, kurt tobacco. anything having anything to do with with sam bassil is scared to death. a man that lives here says that nakoula bassi used his address
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to get credit cards and he found out about it and called the police and hasn't seen him since. numbers associated with his many identities turned up nothing. >> the number you dialed is not a working number. >> even anti-islamic activists that worked with him say they were never exactly sure who he was. >> sam was not his real name. i knew that. >> reporter: the same is true for the actors in his movie. >> he told me he was from israel today. he told me he was going to show the movie in egypt, and either i assumed he was from egypt or -- >> he led you to believe he was egyptian. >> yes, because that's what i believed. >> reporter: this is the best address we have for sam bacile. all of the media is camped out here. we are going to try one more time to talk to him. mr. bacile, mr. nakoula, it is
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miguel marquez with cnn. >> reporter: this house the center of an intense search for answer from a man who has many questions hanging over his head. >> mission, early reports claim ed that he claimed to be jewish, israeli-american and had many financial backers, is that correct? >> reporter: it sounds like he was putting this deception out there as well. certainly, a dangerous deception. he told cast members that he was israeli at one point at well. today, we did confirm, we talked to the bishop of an egyptian-coptic church in the los angeles area and egyptian friends of his who confirms, he is egyptian and coptic christians. this is raising concerns for coptic christians in egypt and what the response there will be. anderson? >> miguel marquez, thank you. we are following other stories tonight. breaking news in the story we followed closely. jason purachel is a free man tonight.
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he has been released from prison where he spent nearly two years. 35-year-old american had been serving a 22-year prison sentence for drug-related crimes. an appeals court ruled in his favor, vacating his conviction. he's waiting for a visa and it's not clear when he'll return to the united states. the washington native had many defenders who argued for his release. his case drew the attention of members of congress and human rights groups. chicago teachers in the fourth day of their strike, but both school and union officials say there is progress in contract talks. and union delegates who have the power to end the strike are set to meet tomorrow afternoon. fed chairman ben bernanke announced today that the federal reserve is moving to jump start the sluggish economy, expanding the policy known as quantitative easing. beginning tomorrow, it will buy billions of dollars of additional bonds in hopes of keeping long-term interest rates and mortgage rates low with a goal of boosting spending and hiring. wall street loved the fed's move.
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the dow jumped 206 points, closing at its highest level in nearly five years. the nasdaq and s&p rose substantially as well. anderson? new polling shows that the presidential race may be shifting in key battleground states including ohio and florida. a bigger lead is opening up. which campaign should be worried? john king will break out the numbers and our political panel weighs in, next. loves the access to tom's personal information. oscar's an identity thief who used tom's personal info to buy new teeth and a new car, and stuck tom with the $57,000 bill. [tires squeal] now meet carl who works from the coffee shop and uses the free wi-fi. marie works from there too. she's an identity thief who used a small device to grab his wi-fi signal, then stole enough personal information to hijack and drain his bank accounts. every year, millions of americans learn all it may take to devastate your life is a
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we're going to go back to egypt and the middle east in a moment. but let's talk about some raw politics now. democrats criticize mitt romney for his comments about the embassy attacks two days ago in libya. he claimed the obama administration's first response demonstrated sympathy for the attackers. last night we showed you how governor romney got his facts and some of the time line wrong. today, he didn't back down. here is what he told abc's george stephanopoulous.
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>> what i said is the same conclusion that the white house came to. what i said is that the statement was inappropriate. >> they didn't say it was showing sympathy for the attackers. >> it was not directly applicable and appropriate for the setting. i think it should have been taken down. apparently, the white house felt the same way. >> no direct response when the president says, you shoot first and aim later. >> this is politics. i'm not going to worry about the campaign. >> new polling out tonight. the question is, should romney be worried? i spoke a short time ago with john king who crunches the new poll numbers and also with gloria borger and david gergen. >> walk us through the new numbers. what do they tell us about where the race is? >> we are going to go through five battleground states. what they tell you, a very close race but advantage for the president. let's start in colorado. brand new numbers in colorado, where the president was today. they show you american research group poll. essentially a dead heat. the president up two points in battleground colorado, within the margin of error. that tells you you have a dead
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heat. mitt romney has hoped to make now we come to the midwest. mitt romney hoped to make michigan, the state he was born, he wanted to make that a battleground. look at this, republican superpacs pulled out. not spending ad money. we see the president with a 10-point lead in michigan, a state romney wanted to put into play. it looks pretty bleak right now. and good for the president. let's drop down to battleground ohio. mitt romney probably can't win the white house if he doesn't win ohio. two polls out with a bit of a conflict here. american research group poll came out this morning, showed a dead heat, 48-47. the new "wall street journal"/maris poll showed the president with a seven-point lead. ohio, a must-win state for romney. the president's teams hopes these numbers are right and not those numbers. if that ohio number is right, that's trouble for mitt romney. two more quick ones. over to virginia, the president won it last time. mitt romney likely needs to win it this time. and five-point gap in the nbc/"wall street journal"/maris poll. a slight lead for the president. let's drop down to florida.
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the same exact thing. you have the same number, same poll. if you add it all up, what do you have? the president tends to have a small, looks like a slightly growing lead, than a few weeks ago in all of the key battlegrounds. not out of reach for mitt romney but the math favors the president. >> it's interesting, gloria, the republican has their convention in florida, but the poll according to john suggests the presses may have gained ground in the state. do you think those numbers will come as a surprise to the romney campaign? >> the problem for the romney campaign, whether it is a surprise or not, the fact that paul ryan on the ticket may affect senior voters or people about to be senior voters. in the state of florida medicare is a very big issue. the romney campaign knew it was a gamble to put paul ryan on the ticket. they hope it gives them the state of wisconsin but it probably does not help them very much in the state of florida. >> david, romney trying to turn things back now to the economy. take a look at the poll. these numbers, the poll today,
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last year, 6 out of 10 voters we spoke to were pessimistic about the economy. two-thirds said they think the economy will be in good shape a year from now. does that surprise you? do you think it should worry the romney campaign? >> it does surprise me. it should worry the romney camp. the argument all along has been that president obama is going nowhere with his economic plan, the economy will not pull out of this under his leadership, come vote for me, come take a chance with me. that's the argument from the romney camp. if two-thirds of the people in the country think we are going to be in better shape a year from now why change horses in mid stream. i don't think that is good news for the romney camp. in the ohio poll that came out from nbc marist. what was really striking, the first state poll from a major battleground state where more people said obama would do a better job handling the economy than romney. >> john, to that point. not only is the president winning ohio but he has a four-point edge on that question of who would handle the economy better? >> if he holds that edge, we have 54 days to go, if he holds
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that edge, the map gets almost impossible. here is where we are now. we've said this before. 237 for the president. 191 for mitt romney. you have to get to 270 to win. if this state goes blue, it becomes almost impossible. it puts the president on the doorstep, number one. number two, if ohio is going democratic, look, ohio is more conservative than iowa. it is really hard to argue that if ohio is going democratic, iowa won't go democratic. you do that. the president is one or two states away. depending on whether it's a big state or a small state. mitt romney is essentially -- if barack obama wins ohio, mitt romney has to draw to an inside strait to win the election. some people say this is a cliche, but it's a fact. no republican has won the white house since abraham lincoln days without winning ohio. >> anderson, when you look back to, say, february, mitt romney was doing a lot better than president obama on who is better able to handle the economy, maybe by five, six, seven points, depending on what poll you look at. as you see that gap shrink, that's worrisome for the romney campaign.
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that's been their calling card. every minute they spend talking about foreign policy is a minute wasted, because they have to talk about the economy. if the public doesn't believe he is necessarily the best man to take care of the economy, what's the rational for the candidacy? >> talking about foreign policy is especially bad if you don't talk about it well. >> right. >> we still have a long way to go before the election, 60 or so days. these numbers are not insurmountable. >> they're not insurmountable. mitt romney has a very reasonable chance to take this. it is putting more and more pressure on him, not only to tie the first debate but to win the first debate. he has to take it away from the president. that's a hard thing to do as a challenger, take it away. >> is this just a convention bounce? >> i think it is a convention bounce, but the atmospherics are changing. the fact is president obama is running a better campaign than mitt romney right now. mitt romney should win this if
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you look at the underlying conditions, all the models for this. obama is running a better calm campaign. just this week, we saw if mitt romney is going to win, he is going to take it through the debates or when special, new events come up. he has to be able to capitalize on them. we just had this new event with libya and egypt. what happened? he bungled it. became an item of controversy. instead of does obama's policy work in the middle east? to have mitt romney on the defense over this question when we are attacked in our embassies, that is inept. >> interesting. david gergen, gloria borger, john king, thank you. with the election less than eight weeks away, we are taking a look at the issues that keep everyone up at night, especially voters. we polled registered voters to see what is on everyone's minds. this week, we are taking a close look at the top economic concerns that voters have. housing was number five. taxes were number four.
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social security was number three. tonight, number two, the federal deficit. someone has made it his mission to promote fiscal responsibilities. david walker, the former comptroller general of the united states. we caught up with him on a bus tour through swing states with a group he founded, the comeback american initiative. here is what he told us. >> what keeps me up at night is the deteriorating financial condition of the country,ess clacountry,ess escalating deficits and debt and what it could mean to our future as a country and my grandchildren. this is not an unsolvable problem. the greatest threat to america's future is not terrorism. it is not some country. it is our own fiscal irresponsibility. during the past five or so years, i have been to 49 states doing town hall meetings. what i've found is that the american people are actually a lot smarter than politicians realize. the united states is a great country but it is not exempt from the laws of prudent finance. you can't spend a lot more money
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than you take in and charge it to the credit card and not expect to have a day of reckoning. a day of reckoning could look like what's happening in europe where all of a sudden, people realize that the country's financial condition is a lot worse than advertised. and a worst-case scenario, a depression. if we have a debt crisis in the u.s., it would be a global depression. nobody would be able to hide. >> anybody who signs a pledge on the right that says, i will never raise taxes, they are part of the problem. they are not part of the solution. anybody on the left who signs a pledge that says, i won't reform social security, medicare and medicaid, they are part of the problem, not part of the solution. >> what we are trying to do is to make sure that this election cycle, that we make this the top issue. we need to wake up, we need to make tough transformational changes and if we do that, our future will be better than our past. other countries have done it. we can do it.
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let's get on with it. >> tomorrow night, we will have a look at everyone's number one concern. we are going to go live to cairo. anti-american protests still erupting. ben wedeman and david kirkpatrick of "the new york times" are there. we will check in with them live next. uhh, it's next month, actually... eddie continues singing: to tickets to... paradiiiiiise! no four. remember? whoooa whooaa whooo! you know ronny, folks who save hundreds of dollars by switching to geico sure are happy. and how happy are they jimmy? happier than eddie money running a travel agency. get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.
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welcome back. we want to update you on the breaking news. authorities just released the fourth man killed at the embassy, tyrone woods, a former navy s.e.a.l., as was glen
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doherty who also died in the attack. meantime, outside the embassy in cairo, hundreds of protesters have clashed with police tonight and all day long. ben wedeman is there and david kirkpatrick is there as well. ben, you have been there among the protesters. you were telling us earlier a little bit about what you heard. what kind of sense do you have about who exactly they are? are they part of an organized group or just young men looking for trouble? >> reporter: by and large, they seem to be young men looking for trouble. they are the same sort of young men between 15 and 25 that i've seen in other protests that had nothing to do with this particular subject. if you listen to some of the slogans they are shouting as they are throwing the molotov cocktails and rocks at the security forces, they don't sound very islamic at all. in fact, they can't even reproduce them on family television.
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you do get the feeling that even though these protests were sparked by this issue of this video on youtube, at this point, it's morphed into the usual sort of street battle between angry young men and the security forces and the issue behind it seems to have faded as the street fighting simply continues as we've seen so many times before. anderson? >> david, that may change hours from now, friday, after prayers, the muslim brotherhood has called for protests nationwide. you have spoken to the muslim brotherhood officials. what are they telling you about the protests? how concerned are they about angering the united states or are they concerned? >> well, i think they are quite concerned about the feedback they are getting from president obama and the american government right now. there was a conspicuous silence from president mohammed morsi of
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the muslim brotherhood when the embassy was first breached and the protests and the next time the protests continued. i think that rubbed a lot of american officials the wrong way at the highest level. especially since the americans had just brought a trade delegation of 100 businessmen here in an effort to try to drum up new money and investment for the egyptian government. on the heels of that, just as they are about to leave and america has been selling egypt, this attack on the american embassy, no apology, no expression of concern from the new president. i think the president heard about that from the president in a phone call. what we see today, leaders of the muslim brotherhood doing everything they can to assure the americans that they are not sorry this happened and they don't blame the american government for condoning this video. that brings us back to the
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protests in the street. i have watched these things before. we have seen many times this sort of street violence. it is just really about anger. maybe police anger at the protesters. i wondered when we had a more legitimate elected government if that would change. this is one of the signs that this is not going to change. in fact, when i heard what i was tired of protesting today, some impatience with the president. impatience that he hasn't done more to stand up to the u.s. i heard people talking about, you have to kick out the american ambassador, cancel his upcoming trip. people are angry at their own president for not speaking out more forcefully on this video. >> david kirkpatrick, i appreciate your reporting and ben wedeman as well. be careful in the days ahead. we're going to be right back.
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